Edith Maude Hull (also known as E. M. Hull and Edith M. Hull) was a British novelist best known for being the author of the romantic novel The Sheik, which became an international best seller in 1921.E. M. Hull was the pseudonym of Edith Maude Winstanley née Henderson. This novel is credited with starting the hugely popular "desert-romance" genre. Hull followed The Sheik with subsequent novels The Shadow of the East, The Desert Healer, and The Sons of the Sheik.